We Love KB Blog

As the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder shies away from the ‘Wild West’ tag and creates a new family-friendly identity, one talented young Western Australian movie maker has seized on the opportunity to make a good ol’ fashioned Western flick in the middle of outback Western Australia in a little town called Gwalia.

The Decadent and Depraved, produced by Jordan Prince-Wright of Prince-Wright Productions, is touted as Western Australia’s largest feature film and is screening for one night only at Orana Cinemas in Kalgoorlie as part of the Goldfields Film Harvest. If you’ve visited and toured Gwalia, 235km north of Kalgoorlie-Boulder, you’ve probably already thought to yourself it would make an amazing movie backdrop. It’s like time has frozen after the inhabitants swiftly packed up their lives and left after the Sons of Gwalia mine closed in 1963.

Sly grog dens, tin miner’s cottages, and the famous Hoover House are just some of the buildings that still stand today as a ‘living ghost town’ tourist attraction and have been used to set some of the most thrilling scenes for The Decadent and Depraved’s storyline of crime, murder, and mayhem. Set in the 1880’s, this film will transport you to a time where gold was king and lives held lesser value.

The tale’s main character, outlaw Leon Murphy (played by Ben Mortley), faces turmoil and loss after handing himself into Her Majesty’s Army to face sentencing. Thinking that turning himself in would ensure the safety of his wife and their child, Leon is heartbroken to discover his wife is murdered after his arrest and his child abducted. During Leon’s transport by lawman Captain Dalton, (played by Michael Muntz), is when the gun-toting action begins. Saddle up and go watch it! The film has been shown around the world and has netted 5 awards from just the Los Angelos film festival alone!

” Gritty, gnarly and bloodthirsty – The Decadent and Depraved cooly fires, from the hip and doesn’t miss” – Hooked On Film

The Decadent and Depraved Producer & Director, Jordan Prince-Wright

The film’s producer and director, Jordan Prince-Wright, is only 21 and has been dabbling in film-making since high school. Western Australian raised, Jordan is inspired by outback WA and knew as soon as seeing a brochure about the tourist attraction and rugged landscape that surrounds Gwalia that it had to be included in the film.

“I actually stumbled upon Gwalia in a brochure and noticed the aesthetic, I didn’t believe at first that this was here in WA. Once doing the homework and the Shire of Leonora jumping on board I got to visit this incredible location and soon as I was there confirmed right away that we were going to use it somewhere, no matter what!”

Seeing as the crew were having to travel hundreds of kilometres from Perth to get to Gwalia, We Love KB asked Jordan and the crew what they thought of our city, Kalgoorlie Boulder;

“When the whole team was there during transition periods it was a great place to be due to it gave us a chance to not only get away from the crazy time and non-stop work on set, but also to chill. Every business we did go into everyone was over the top friendly! Which is unexpected for such a big place.”

Gone are the days of rough and tumble living for the Goldfields, it’s up to the imagination of filmakers like Jordan to showcase our prospecting heritage through big screen films like The Decadent and Depraved. There have admittedly been liberties taken with ‘historical accuracy’ in the films’ storyline, and we are confident the often grisly true tales will have their stories told in time too but for now, put this one on your watchlist.

The Decadent and Depraved screens at Orana Cinemas at 6:15pm on Wednesday August 29th.